Free printable checklist
Twelve places cameras belong, the five mistakes that make footage useless, and what each size of system costs in LA. Print it, walk your property with it, and mark the spots yourself. Nothing to fill in, no email required.
The checklist
Work through this list standing on the property, not sitting at a desk. For each item, ask one question: if something happened here at 2am, would this camera give me a face or a plate, or just proof that something happened? Only the first one is worth paying for.
One camera at the primary entry, 8 to 10 feet high, angled so a face is readable at the door mat, not just a hat and shoulders.Common mistake: mounting at 14 feet under the eave, which gives you a great picture of the top of somebody's head.
Cover the vehicle approach from the street to the garage. This is the camera that captures plates, delivery drivers and the car that circled the block twice.Common mistake: one wide camera trying to cover the driveway and the front door at once. Neither ends up usable.
Most break-ins in a residential neighborhood use the entry nobody can see from the street. Cover every door and gate, including the one behind the trash cans.Common mistake: skipping the side gate because it is always locked.
One camera looking back at the house from the yard, not out into the dark. You want to see somebody approaching the sliding door, not thirty feet of lawn.Common mistake: aiming into open space where nothing triggers and nothing is identifiable.
Garages hold tools, bikes, a second car and often an unlocked interior door into the house.Common mistake: treating the garage as storage instead of an entry point.
A hallway, a stair landing or the entry from the garage. Anyone moving through the house passes a choke point, and that is where identification actually happens.Common mistake: putting interior cameras in the living room, where a hood and a hat defeat them.
Not just the customer door. The employee door, the alley door and the roof access if you have one.Common mistake: covering the front door only, when the loss is walking out the back.
Mounted above and slightly behind the register, looking down at the drawer and the counter surface.Common mistake: a camera across the room that shows a transaction happened but not what was in the hand.
The doorway matters more than the room. One camera on the door tells you who went in and when.Common mistake: a camera inside the stockroom aimed at shelves.
Dock doors and the dumpster are where inventory leaves without paperwork.Common mistake: no coverage of the dumpster, which is the most common staging point for internal theft.
Vehicle approach, trailer parking and the fence line where the property boundary is easiest to cross.Common mistake: cameras on the building only, which gives you no warning time.
Wherever money is counted or keys are stored, with a clear view of hands and the surface.Common mistake: covering the safe door but not the counting surface.
What goes wrong
These five account for most of the systems we are called in to re-aim or replace. Four of them cost nothing to avoid at install time and a lot to fix afterwards.
Above about 10 feet you get the top of a head. Height protects the camera and destroys the evidence. Mount lower and accept that the camera is visible.
A camera aimed at a west-facing window, a white wall in afternoon sun or straight down a driveway at sunset will silhouette every person who walks in front of it.
Wide views are for awareness. Identification needs a narrow view of a spot people have to pass through. A property needs both, and they are not the same camera.
People walk a path to the door. If cameras cover the yard and the corners but nothing covers the path, you will have footage of an event and no face.
A system that overwrites in five days is useless for a claim someone files in three weeks. Storage is sized by how long you need to look back, not by camera count.
Sizing
Camera count is the wrong place to start, but it is where every conversation starts, so here are honest brackets. The number moves with mounting difficulty, how far cable has to run, the condition of the network and how long you need to keep footage, not with the megapixel number on the box.
| System size | What it typically covers | Planning range in Los Angeles |
|---|---|---|
| 4 cameras | Front door, driveway, back door, one interior choke point. | About $2,000 to $4,500 installed |
| 6 to 8 cameras | Adds side gate, rear yard, garage and a second interior point. Typical for a full single-family home. | About $3,000 to $8,000 and up |
| 8 to 16 cameras | A small commercial site: entrances, registers, stockroom, dock, parking. | About $8,000 to $25,000 and up |
| 16 or more | Multi-zone commercial, warehouses, yards and campuses with structured cabling and racks. | $25,000 and up |
Planning ranges are budgeting aids, not quotes. For a scope-by-scope breakdown see the CCTV installation cost guide, or try the security system cost calculator. Professional monitoring is separate and starts at $24.99 a month.
California rules
Three things worth knowing before you mount anything. You can record your own property, including areas visible from the street. Audio is treated differently from video under California's two-party consent rule, so many systems are best configured with audio off. And a place where a person reasonably expects privacy, including a neighbor's window, a bathroom or a changing area, is off limits no matter whose wall the camera is on. The full picture, including doorbell cameras, tenants, HOAs and workplaces, is in our California security camera laws and privacy guide.
This is general information, not legal advice. If your situation involves tenants, employees or a shared property line, talk to an attorney.
Keep going
How the systems are designed, what separates useful coverage from a box of cameras, and what installation involves.
Planning ranges by scope, what actually moves the budget and how to keep surprises down.
Cameras are one layer. This covers alarms, sensors, monitoring and how the layers work together.
Register coverage, stockroom doors and footage that holds up for a claim or a chargeback.
Docks, yards, fence lines and retention your insurer will accept.
What to ask any company, including us, before you sign anything.
Before you call
A typical 4-camera home system is about $2,000 to $4,500 installed. An 8 to 16 camera commercial site is $8,000 to $25,000 and up. See the CCTV cost guide or the cost calculator.
Same-day response, and the on-site walk is free. Tell us if it is urgent, for example after a break-in nearby, and we will say honestly how soon we can get there.
Licensed California ACO 7755 and C-10, insured and bonded, installing in Los Angeles since 2016. Rated 5.0 from 22 verified reviews and A+ with the BBB.
In California you can record your own property. Audio and areas where people expect privacy have separate rules. See California camera and privacy rules.
The next step
This checklist gets you most of the way there. The last part, where the cable actually runs and where the light will fight you at four in the afternoon, needs someone standing in the driveway. That visit is free, and you keep the written plan whether or not you hire us.
Tell us what you want to see. A driveway, a front door, a register, a loading gate. About ten minutes, and you are talking to the people who plan the system, not a call center.
We walk the property with this checklist, check the network and the power, and mark the mounting points. We will also tell you where we would not spend your money.
Scope, camera placement and price, in writing, before anything is ordered. No deposit is needed to get the number.
“I do not want a surprise number.”
A typical 4-camera home system runs about $2,000 to $4,500 installed. You get a written price before any work starts. Full ranges are in the CCTV cost guide.
“I do not want to be upsold.”
We say out loud which cameras you do not need. Starting with the highest priority areas and adding more later is normal here, not a problem.
“Who is actually coming to my property?”
A licensed California ACO 7755 and C-10 contractor, insured and bonded, working in Los Angeles since 2016. You can verify the license before you book.
“Who else can see my video?”
By default the recording stays on equipment at your property and the footage is yours. We do not need to watch your cameras to support them.
Free. About 10 minutes. No obligation. English and Spanish. Licensed California ACO 7755 and C-10, insured and bonded since 2016.